The Ten Commandments, also known as the Decalogue, from the Greek words δέκα (ten) and λόγος (words), are a set of ethical and worship principles, which play an important role in Judaism and Christianity. They include instructions on how to worship only one God and keep the Sabbath, as well as prohibitions against idolatry, murder, theft, dishonesty, and adultery. Different religious groups follow different traditions in how they interpret and list them. The Ten Commandments appear twice in the Hebrew Bible: in the books of Exodus and Deuteronomy. According to the story told in the book of Exodus, God wrote these commands on two stone tablets, which he gave to Moses on Mount Sinai; According to the story, when he was coming down from the mountain, he saw the people worshiping a golden calf and in anger he broke them. Subsequently, he asked God to forgive the people and seal a «covenant» (covenant or alliance) with them; Then, the Lord ordered Moses to take two stone slabs and the Ten Commandments of the covenant were written on them, admonishing him that «they should not tolerate disobedience.» The Ten Commandments are recognized as a moral foundation in Judaism, Christianity and Islam. These appear for the first time in the Book of Exodus, according to which Moses, acting under the orders of God, freed the Israelites from slavery in Egypt. According to religious teaching, God offered a covenant to also free them from the «spiritual slavery» of sin. Some historians have described this as the «central event in the history of Ancient Israel.»
The Exodus and Deuteronomy passages
The Mitzvot (divine commandments) contained in the Torah (Pentateuch) are very numerous, 613 according to the Jewish count, but special significance has been given to those that constitute the treaty that God sealed with the chosen people in the course of the exodus, writing them on stone tablets that he gave to Moses on Mount Sinai. The content of these divine commands is found in several passages of the Pentateuch. The two main sources are Exodus, 20:2-17 and Deuteronomy, 5:6-21. Another very ancient text appears in the Book of Exodus (34:10-28), considered by the ancient Israelite rabbis as one of those that best expressed the ordinances of the god Yahveh when the Alliance was celebrated. The book of Exodus contains the following narration:
And God spoke all these words, saying:
I, Yahweh, am your God, who brought you out of the land of Egypt, from the house of bondage.
You will have no other gods before me.
You shall not make for yourself an image or any likeness of anything that is in heaven above, or that is on the earth beneath, or that is in the water under the earth.
You will not bow down to any image, nor honor them; For I am Yahweh your God, strong and jealous, visiting the iniquity of the fathers on the children to the third and fourth generation of those who hate me,
and I show mercy to thousands, to those who love me and keep my commandments.
You shall not take the name of Yahweh your God in vain; for Yahweh will not hold him innocent who takes his name in vain.
Remember the Sabbath day to keep it holy
Six days you will work, and you will do all your work,
but the seventh day is a rest to Yahweh your God; Do not do any work in it, you, nor your son, nor your daughter, nor your male servant, nor your maidservant, nor your beast, nor your foreigner who is within your gates.
For in six days Yahweh made the heavens and the earth, the sea, and all that is in them, and rested on the seventh day; Therefore Yahweh blessed the Sabbath day and sanctified it.
Honor your father and your mother, so that your days may be long in the land that Yahweh your God is giving you.
Thou shalt not kill.
You shall not commit adultery.
Thou shalt not steal.
You shall not bear false witness against your neighbor.
You shall not covet your neighbor's house, you shall not covet your neighbor's wife, nor his servant, nor his maid, nor his ox, nor his donkey, nor anything of your neighbor.
"Exodus 20:1-17".
The book of Deuteronomy, whose Greek name refers to the fact that it largely repeats the content of the previous ones, offers an enumeration very similar to that of Exodus 20:
I am Yahweh your God, who brought you out of the land of Egypt, from the house of bondage, and I fed you all your life.
You will have no other gods before me.
You shall not make for yourself any sculpture or image of anything that is in heaven above, or that is on the earth beneath, or that is in the water under the earth.
You will not bow down to them or serve them; For I am Yahweh your God, strong and jealous, visiting the iniquity of the fathers on the children to the third and fourth generation of those who hate me,
and that I show mercy to thousands, to those who love me and keep my commandments.
You shall not take the name of Yahweh your God in vain; for Yahweh will not hold him innocent who takes his name in vain.
You shall keep the Sabbath day to keep it holy, as the LORD your God has commanded you.
Six days you will work, and you will do all your work;
but the seventh day is a rest to Yahweh your God; You shall do no work, neither you, nor your son, nor your daughter, nor your male or female servant, nor your ox, nor your donkey, nor any of your animals, nor the foreigner who is within your gates, so that your male and female servant may rest like you.
Remember that you were a servant in the land of Egypt, and that Yahweh your God brought you out of there with a strong hand and an outstretched arm; Therefore the LORD your God has commanded you to keep the Sabbath.
Honor your father and your mother, as the LORD your God has commanded you, that your days may be long, and that it may go well with you in the land that the LORD your God is giving you.
Thou shalt not kill.
You shall not commit adultery.
No you will steal
You shall not bear false witness against your neighbor.
You shall not covet your neighbor's wife, nor desire your neighbor's house, nor his land, nor his manservant, nor his maidservant, nor his ox, nor his donkey, nor anything that belongs to your neighbor.
"Deuteronomy 5:6-21".
The coming of Jesus is seen by the Catholic Church as the fulfillment of the Old Testament and of the Jews, who were chosen to «show the true God to the world.» Jesus made the Commandments known and instructed his followers to perfect them, demanding «more, not less: a justice superior to that of the Scribes and Pharisees.» «The Commandments are the moral order what the creation story in Genesis is the natural order. They are God’s basis for conquering chaos. They are not men’s ideas about God, but God’s ideas about man.» The Church teaches that Jesus freed people from maintaining «the Jewish law (Torah) with its 613 distinct rules, but not from the obligation to keep the Ten Commandments,» because the Ten Commandments «were written by the finger of God,» unlike «those written by Moses.» This doctrine was reaffirmed at the Council of Trent (1545-1563) and the Second Vatican Council (1962-1965). Saint Thomas Aquinas, a doctor of the Church, considers the Commandments to be the «principal precepts of justice and of all laws, and natural reason gives its immediate consent to them as clearly evident principles.» The Catechism of the Catholic Church dedicates a large part to the commandments, serving today as the basis for Catholic social teaching. According to the Catechism, the Church has given them a predominant place in the teaching of the faith since the 5th century. The Church considers them as «a way of life» and a «path to freedom,» just as a school playground protects children from «life-threatening dangers.»
“The commandments are part of a relationship, that of the Covenant between God and his People” Franciscus PP
The Decalogue in the Catholic Church
La Sagrada Escritura los llama también «las diez Palabras». El mandamiento es un precepto, una orden. En cambio, la palabra es el medio esencial de la relación como diálogo fundamentado en el amor. Dos personas que no se aman, no logran comunicar. Sin embargo, cuando alguien habla a nuestro corazón, termina nuestra soledad y comienza una comunicación que da vida.
En la Sagrada Escritura, los mandamientos no viven por sí mismos, sino son parte de una relación, como se puede ver al inicio del capítulo 20 del Libro del Éxodo, donde el texto habla de “palabras” y no de “mandamientos”. “La tradición judía las llamará siempre como el Decálogo, las diez Palabras. Y el término decálogo quiere decir justamente esto, relación”.
The Ten Commandments according to the Catechism of the Catholic Church, analyzed individually, are: Catholic Church, and they are:
The new commandment of Jesus (Saint John 13, 34-35) A new commandment I give to you: That you love one another as I have loved you. By this you will know that you are my disciples: if you have love for one another.
The Most Important Commandment (Matthew 22:34-40) The Pharisees gathered together when they heard that Jesus had silenced the Sadducees. One of them, an expert in the law, set a trap for him with this question: Teacher, what is the most important commandment of the law? “Love the Lord your God with all your heart, with all your being and with all your mind” – Jesus answered him -. This is the first and most important of the commandments. The second looks like this: “Love your neighbor as yourself.” All the law and the prophets depend on these two commandments.
